scenario

Charlotte @ Durham Zaleski Knights lost 10-9 Mississippi @ Birmingham Lowe Barons won 3-2 Winston-Salem @ Wilmington Sauer Dash Hogs won 4-2 Kanny - No game tonight Billings @ Great Falls Burnside In progress - tied Bristol @ Danville Arroyo Bristol lost 9-5

The scene from "Hannibal" where Anthony Hopkins cuts open Ray Liotta's head, takes a slice of his brain, cooks it, and then feeds it to him. I can watch pretty much any type of gore in movies, but for some reason that scene gets to me.

QUOTE (wsgdf_2 @ Aug 10, 2010 -> 10:18 PM) I never thought he was done... but I was making my case somewhere else. He signed for $1.5 million. There is ZERO risk in that contract and only reward. That sounds like a good idea. But it's not always practical to implement. Think about it... Thome was one of the highest paid players on the team... And an acknowledged team and clubhouse leader. And then one year later, in the same clubhouse, he would be a part time guy and one of the lowest paid veterans in the room. I don't believe Kenny or Ozzie wanted to put Thome in that situation. You can make those types of changes much more easily when you move to a new team. So, IMO... this is exactly why we let him go... Despite the logic (to us) of keeping him around at a bargain price.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Aug 10, 2010 -> 09:43 PM) He must really hate Thome for some reason. For whatever reason he has to use every opportunity to tell everyone how he couldn't use him in our lineup. He must hate him? Geezus... This is how rumors start. No... Ozzie does NOT hate Thome. He repeatedly over and over talks about how much respect he (and the entire organization) has for Thome. The bottom line is that he (and probably Kenny) felt they didn't want to disrespect Thome by bringing him back for a pittance this season after the big contract he had here... and then have him only play in a reserve role. They felt it would be an uncomfortable situation for everyone. In situations like that, it's easier to have someone move on and let the new team make that decision. The mistake the Sox made was in thinking Thome's skills might be diminishing more/faster than they have.

I always find it interesting how people name their pets. I have a neighbor with a 200lb English Mastiff named Cupcake. Still trying to figure that one out.

Count me on the side of the guy filing the lawsuit. It was a known problem that baseball teams (and major league baseball) did nothing about until people starting getting hurt. When you file a lawsuit like this, your attorney goes after every pocket available... which is why Castillo and Castro are included. But what they really want is the deep pocket to kick in and settle. Baseball is lucky someone didn't get killed by one of those bats. They should have been banned BEFORE people started getting hurt. They were stupid to allow them to continue to be used, and the fact that they're now being taken to task for it should be no surprise.

QUOTE (Chet Kincaid @ Aug 8, 2010 -> 01:38 PM) Did Hawk just say that the fastest player he's seen down the first base line was Mickey Mantle? He's not the only one to say it.

I have a whoooooole new respect for Tony Pena. That was nice pitching under tough circumstances.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 6, 2010 -> 01:01 PM) The odds of Detroit waiving Damon are 100%. The odds of him clearing are zero. They won't let him go for nothing. Not sure what they could ask for since they only control him through the end of this year. Not much if anything I would guess. On the other hand, if they let him walk they probably save about $1.5M. And if they're not competing in September, chances are Comerica will be a ghost town. $1.5M in savings might be pretty compelling. So... who knows... it'll be interesting to see what happens.

QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ Aug 6, 2010 -> 12:04 PM) What are the Sox longterm plans for Sale? "Lefty one out" guy, reliever, starter? Starter At least that's the plan right now. Give him some splash exposure to mlb this year as a reliever... fulfill the promise we made to bring him up this year in exchange for him accepting a slot bonus... return him to a starting role next year.

The Dodgers loss to the Padres last night had a familiar ring to it... Octavio Dotel gave up a couple of runs in the 9th... Scotty Pods misplayed a ball resulting in an inside-the-park homerun. God, I miss those days.

What are the odds that the Tigers waive Johnny Damon... and then that KW scoops him up ala Rios? Don't think there will be too many other teams standing in line for him. And teams that could block us are unlikely to take the risk just in case the Tigers chose to let him go. Just a thought...

Toledo @ Charlotte Harrell getting slapped around early Birmingham @ Jacksonville Leesman Frederick @ Winston-Salem postponed Greensboro @ Kannapolis postponed Missoula @ Great Falls Burnside Johnson City @ Bristol postponed

Let's get down to the real issue... What the hell is Jenks doing throwing weak *** offspeed **** to Ramon Santiago and Ryan Rayburn? We're not talking Miguel Cabrera here... what deception was required? Neither one of those guys is capable of getting around on his fastball! Blow them away 1-2-3. Over. Anything else is a freaking waste of time... and improves their chances of getting on base. Bottom line: it was a pitch selection problem. I think if that is addressed, most of Jenks' "problems" go away.

QUOTE (Jenks Heat @ Aug 5, 2010 -> 03:51 PM) Can somebody post he splits for Jenks during the day v. night. He seems to blow a ton of day game saves. http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/players/7285/s...0GeLdKc2TuFCLcF Success and failure for him is the difference between night and day... literally. At least this year anyway.

LOL Truth IS stranger than fiction sometimes, isn't it?

So painful to watch. They couldn't hit his fastball. Yet he throws 2 piece of crap offspeed pitches... one that hits a batter... the other that leaves the park. For the love of God, Bobby, get a clue.

Bobby... fastball dammit... fastball. Quit screwing around.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Aug 5, 2010 -> 12:58 PM) Fredo? Isn't that a LoTR character? Godfather

Fredo doesn't throw as hard as he used to, but he's got a nice spread on the speed of his pitches. Curveball at 67mph... followed up by a 87mph fastball. That ought to keep hitters decently off balance.

QUOTE (Hawk09 @ Aug 5, 2010 -> 07:41 AM) I have been saying this since the trade....Edwin Jackson is rated by fangraphs as having the #4 average fastball velocity in MLB, behind only Jiminez,Verlander,and Jock Johnson. This aint no average arm out there on Edwin. I loved how he froze Damon with that 97 mph fastball on the inside corner for a called third strike. Don't blink,Johnny. Also saw an article on FanGraphs that shows Jackson is one of only a handful of pitchers in baseball whose fastball does not drop off in speed late in games. He throws just as hard on pitch 90 as he does on pitch 1.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Aug 4, 2010 -> 09:23 PM) yes we do. Premature threadulation by thunderbolt So could being really excited over Edwin's first start cause premature ejax-adulation?

QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 4, 2010 -> 07:42 PM) Not to discredit the Sox, but Galarraga looks terrible. Tough to imagine him throwing a perfect game, isn't it?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 4, 2010 -> 07:32 PM) Really, I'm flat out unimpressed so far. He has a 96 mph fastball but it's been hit a few times and he's only really gotten a couple of pitches that have hurt people. There's very little sink or cut on his fastball. It's straight. The Slider's been very week. He's thrown less than 5 good ones. Cabrera got 2, Peralta got 1. He's stepped up and gotten Cabrera a couple times, I'll grant him that...but every time he's come up there's been people on. Keep in mind that Coop is probably working a very specific plan with Jackson. Starting out throwing only 2 pitches... telling him "don't worry about whether guys get hits, we don't care... just throw strikes". It's very similar to what they did with Thornton at first. They want to establish his ability to throw strikes... period. And then build on that.

QUOTE (balfanman @ Aug 4, 2010 -> 02:55 AM) Could it be that the reason Kotsay started both games of the twin bill was a last ditch effort by Ozzie to get Kotsays' bat going because he knows that time is short, and if Kotsay doesn't justify himself soon that Ozzie will have no other choice but to DFA him in favor of Teahen. Yes.